Cloud as reference point
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Location: Oop North, UK
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Neilr
This is fine if you pick a ground feature that is offset from directly in front of you by your drift,and you are keeping it offset. You are then not pointing straight at your feature and if you do this will tend to turn directly towards it anyway.
If you are pointing straight at it though you WILL drift.
Try it sometime in a strong wind - pick a point (flying crosswind) and aim straight at it - note your heading - fly 10 mins towards it, then look at your heading again.
As for
If that is all you are lowering the nose I doubt it would be enough to satisfy most instructors/examiners as sufficient lookout in the climb! I have had a number of students use this with me and to lower the nose enough to clear properly has always seemed a clumsy manouver!
I would not totally agree with how you have worded this statement -
heading = track + drift
you need to choose a drift compensated heading that will ensure the aircraft tracks directly to a ground point - choosing one well ahead and keeping it fixed in the window will ensure you fly an accurate track which is generally what we care about - this will also ensures accurate heading maintainence ...
heading = track + drift
you need to choose a drift compensated heading that will ensure the aircraft tracks directly to a ground point - choosing one well ahead and keeping it fixed in the window will ensure you fly an accurate track which is generally what we care about - this will also ensures accurate heading maintainence ...
If you are pointing straight at it though you WILL drift.
Try it sometime in a strong wind - pick a point (flying crosswind) and aim straight at it - note your heading - fly 10 mins towards it, then look at your heading again.
As for
it should be a gentle lowering of the nose of the nose just enough to look ahead - so gentle your pax would not even notice
Last edited by foxmoth; 24th Sep 2011 at 12:52.
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... lowering the nose does reduce ROC .... but its pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things ...
Unless you actually throttle back while lowering the nose to look out, the full throttle engine will continue to increase your energy. True, while the nose is down you will be speeding up instead of climbing, but once you lift the nose again that extra speed gives you extra ROC till you get back to best climb speed.
I admit you will have left the 'maximum excess power' speed for a short while, but the curve is pretty flat on top, so I can't see it amounting to much.
